Novapet restarts Barbastro PET plant after maintenance

LONDON (ICIS)--Spain-based Novapet restarted its largest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in Barbastro, Spain, this week, after a planned maintenance shutdown, a company source said on Thursday.

Novapet shut the 130,000 tonne/year unit on 27 September this year for maintenance. The producer encountered technical problems when it tried to restart operations at the facility at the end of October.

“We will have commercial production this coming Monday [26 November],'' the company source said.

Demand in the European PET market is slow. PET producers in Europe are mostly running at reduced operating rates to cope with lower sales. Some European PET suppliers hope to recover some of their production margins by attempting to raise prices in December.

Novapet also operates a 100,000 tonne/year PET plant which was shut down for maintenance in May this year, and a 30,000 tonne/year specialty grade PET line. Both plants are also located in Barbastro.